


Split Second

by okemmelie



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, basically ted's thoughts after paul and them leave to get drinks with hidgens, tags and summaries? don't know how to make them efficiently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26447050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: With the singing and dancing threat of death looming around the corner and a slip of the tongue, Ted finds himself thinking about how he really feels about Charlotte. It's time to make a decision. Is he ready to tell her everything?
Relationships: Charlotte/Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Split Second

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes you just gotta let your favorite character word vomit in a stressful moment of their life and that is very much what this is. enjoy!

“Well, if I’m going to die, I’m gonna go out doing the thing I love.”

Their eyes are locked, hers wide open and truly beautiful. He could get lost in them and he has many times, but he doesn’t have time for that. Not right now. His demeanor doesn’t change, his face shows no signs of change, but he’s panicking. His mind is running faster than it has in a long time and he’s desperately clinging to whatever ideas he can grab onto.

Ted has gotten into plenty of trouble in his life. He’s said stupid stuff and he’s done stupid stuff to get out of those stupid situations. But he’s never, not once, admitted to anyone that he loved them. And this? This is a little too close to a love confession.

Are her eyes puzzled? Is she thinking he’s about to tell her he loves her? Is that what she’s trying to convey in this moment? Usually he’s able to read her pretty well, read anyone pretty well, but right now he’s failing. His thoughts are all jumbled up and he needs to come up with an explanation, sooner rather than later.

Does he love her?

Stupid question. Not a question at all. Of course he loves her. He’d say he’s loved her from the moment he first saw her, from the very first time he laid his eyes on her smile, her wonderful, beautiful, captivating smile that was once new and exciting but now has changed into something more warm, something more comforting. It wouldn’t be true, of course. Love doesn’t happen, not like that and not that quick. Especially not for men like him.

Come think of it, Ted’s pretty sure he can pinpoint the exact moment that he realized his feelings for Charlotte weren’t just lust, that she wasn’t just a pleasant break from the boredom and a pretty woman to put his dick in. This summer, when Sam was out of town with his work friends, she’d taken him to the ice cream hut by the lake. He’d been the one paying, of course, but that was okay. He didn’t mind. She’d told him about how she used to go here when she was a kid, every Sunday all summer. She’d buy an ice cream and she’d sit at a table that overlooked the water perfectly. The table wasn’t there anymore, so they settled for one kind of close to where her original table had been.

She didn’t get ice cream on her nose and he didn’t romantically wipe it away, it wasn’t like that at all. Love doesn’t happen in a moment, in a gesture, in a split second. It happens over time. And it was as she told him about her life, about her childhood, that he realized that he wanted to hear about it. Wanted to have met her earlier so he didn’t just have to hear about it, so he could have been there and shared her moments of happiness with her and seen her shine in them, rather than just sit there and listen to her talking about them with a bittersweet tone. He’d never wanted for anyone to stick around. He’d never actually wanted to hear about anyone’s life or even their day before.

But Charlotte? Charlotte was different. She hadn’t always been, but she’d grown into it. He’d grown into it.

He often found himself wondering if she felt the same, if she loved him too and if she cared about him and his day and his life. And maybe it was low self-esteem telling him he wasn’t worthy of her love or maybe he was just unlucky with having fallen in love with her of all people, but he would always reach the conclusion that his love was one sided. It didn’t matter. He stuck around.

In this moment, this fleeting moment in a professor’s panic house with Charlotte’s dead husband on a chair just a few feet from them, Ted wanted to tell her. He’d been so sure they’d die earlier and he still wasn’t entirely convinced they wouldn’t. Didn’t he owe it to himself to at least give it a shot?

Charlotte loves Sam, he reminds himself. And maybe what he owes himself was to hold on to his remaining dignity, however little might be left of it.

“Screwing around with another man’s wife.”

**Author's Note:**

> big f in the chat for teddy. maybe next time he'll be brave enough to tell charlotte he loves her :')) i thought it was a bit weird of team starkid to end the musical there but i respect them. can't wait to see what happens with ted and charlotte in the future!  
> my tumblr is helenmcwife in case you want to yell at me


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